Give it a Rest Already!

Recent conversations with friends of mine have brought me to the conclusion that we need to give ourselves a break. On a daily basis it seems, we break ourselves down and pick ourselves apart, for what I'm not quite sure.

It is human nature to judge and criticize but I tend to believe that with a little time and effort that criticism can be turned into motivation and that judgement can be replaced with encouragement. Encouragement and motivation for yourself, to reach your goals and to push past your boundaries.

Life is at times difficult and completely unpredictable. However, if you let every little "flaw" slow you down and change the view that you have of yourself, you're never going to get to where you should be and where you should be, where we all should be is moving forward through this beautiful struggle that is our life.

Glass Walls

That expression "You can't see the forest for the trees" comes to mind when I start to think about things before.  My life, and who I was before. "You can't see the forest for the trees". I'd like to say that's how it was. I'd like to say that I didn't see it happening, that I was unable to see the slow collapse of my own life, but I did. I did see it, I just didn't know how to stop it. The thing that had been my comfort, my escape, my protection from the real world had in one fell swoop thrown me off the edge with no safety net and it hurt like hell when I hit the bottom. I read somewhere that you don't appreciate what you have until its taken away. I, thankfully, didn't have everything taken away. I did however have it all slip far enough away that I almost couldn't reach it so I feel like I can say I understand that expression now and I wholeheartedly agree. To say that I was irresponsible would be an understatement. However, the real issue here is how ungrateful I was when I made the decision that brought me to the place that no one wants to go to, a place where I was grasping for everything that I loved and praying that I'd be able to hold on. It became very apparent that I needed to remove myself from what I had considered my comfort zone. Once outside of it though, I found myself feeling lost and a bit confused.  I didn't quite know where I belonged or who I was supposed to be. This, however was temporary and as it turns out the thing that gave me a sense of belonging, a sense of security, my identity, was in fact, the one thing that was threatening to take it all away. Once it was gone it took some time to fully see, but there I was. There I was, and when I looked around, there were the people that I cared about. Apparently they'd been there the whole time, telling me the harsh truths but I couldn't hear it, waiting for me to grab their hand but I couldn't reach it, and loving me unconditionally but I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel any of it until I stepped outside of the glass walls.

100 Days of Change

I'm sure that everyone has heard of 100 days of happy.  Well, this is my version of that with a little twist.  Instead of 100 days of things that make me happy, this is going to be the start of 100 days of me making changes. 

Whether they are big or small, I have things that I want to change about myself or about my life, we all do.  Relationships, bad habits, career paths, the list is never ending, but whether it's a simple lifestyle change or a life changing choice, it's not going to happen on it's own.  I have to take the first step, make the first move, put in the effort to make these changes happen.  Daily habits don't take root overnight, so when it comes to things like diet and exercise, I don't expect immediate results.  The same goes with a major decision like going back to school, changing my career path or even moving to a new place.  I can decide to do it, but it's not going to happen overnight so I have to have patience with myself and with life in general.  Slow progress is still progress. 

I have so many things that I want to change, that when the 100 days are over I probably won't be finished, but the process will have begun.  The ball will be rolling.  Each day I will come here and write all about the "change of the day" and each day that passes I hope to see a difference in myself and my life.  Each day I hope to create good habits, make better choices and when all is said and done be healthier and happier because really, isn't that the point. 

Tomorrow will be day 1, let's see how this goes...

~KG

Waiting for what?

I usually only end my posts with a quote but I'm going to start with one as well. 

"Stop waiting for Friday, for summer, for someone to fall in love with you, for life.  Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for it and make the most of the moment you're in now."

After reading that it got me thinking and here's what I think.  We wait for the weekend.  We wait for the summer.  We wait until we fall in love or until we are more financially stable.  It seems like we are always waiting for something to make us happy.  Waiting for a someone to come into or something to happen in our lives before we allow ourselves to be happy.  Well, while we are waiting on all of these things, for these moments to occur, time goes on. The minutes, hours and days go by.  While we are waiting, life is happening and little moments of happiness are being overlooked and opportunities are being missed.

In the fast paced, let me check my schedule, I don't have time world that we live in, we crave and search for happiness when in reality we already have it.  Our focus is placed on so many different things at any given moment that we don't recognize the happiness of and in those moments.  When we laugh at a co-workers joke, happiness.  When we get a text or a phone call from someone and it brings a smile to our face, happiness.  When we take a moment to step outside on a nice day, to curl up with a good book or to simply sit and do nothing, there's happiness there.  It's not always the grand gestures, award winning moments or invitation worthy events that bring us our joy.  More often than not it's the simplest of things that mean the most and feel the greatest yet we tend to overlook them and focus on bigger things.  The big things are not the most important part of the bigger picture, it's the little things that mean the most in our lives. 

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”~ Robert Brault   ~KG

Sometimes I feel like..

....social media is an addiction.  An addiction that it seems everyone has including myself.  I got my first taste of it with the "old school" Facebook aka Myspace.  Myspace was great for keeping in touch with people that you didn't see very often, but even better for getting in touch with those that you thought were gone forever.  I was perfectly happy with my little Myspace page, uploading photos from my most recent vacation, choosing what background I thought would look the cutest and of course the best part, picking what song I wanted playing when someone decided to stop by for a visit. Yes, I was quite content with thispage of mine and then I discovered Facebook.  It didn't take long before I said goodbye to good ole Mypace and became full on committed to Facebook.  How could I not?  Not only could I post pictures but I could share them, them and pretty much anything else I wanted.  Status updates, my song of the moment, a new page that I couldn't get enough of, anything at all.  Facebook wasn't the new Myspace, Facebook was way better and thus began my love affair with Facebook.  The relationship started slow, a status here or there, some pics from the previous weekends activities, an event invite or two.  As time went on, I found myself checking it everyday, then a few times a day and eventually it was what felt like almost constantly.  I had to see what was going on, what people were doing and I wondered if people were doing the same as me.  It was like I was going to miss something, but of course that was not the case. I was simply hooked.  In an effort to take a break from technology or get away from the "drama" I, as many others I know have, deactivated my account.  This of course was temporary and I was back on in days.  Months later I did it again, only this time it was a test to see if I could go without it for awhile.  My second attempt lasted for only two weeks and as I reactivated my account, I told myself that I didn't need it, that I had proven that I could go without it. However, as my news feed popped up in front of me, I knew it was a lie, but I didn't care because I was back!  Since then I have distanced myself a bit but along with my Instagram and now with the worst of them all, Pinterest, it is apart of my daily life.  I've accepted that this is one habit that I am not going to kick and I'm ok with that.  I'm ok with it for two indisputable reasons. One, I know that I am not alone and two, because it makes me happy and that will always be good enough reason for me. 

"There really isn't a big secret to life...just do what makes you happy"~unknown

Hugs and high fives
~KG